Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur was seen pushing a bus that broke down in the middle of a highway causing a traffic jam in Himachal Pradesh's Bilaspur. The Minister's convoy was also stuck in traffic.
Thakur's father Prem Kumar Dhumal was the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh between 2007 and 2012. Polling in Himachal Pradesh will be held on November 12 and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8. The minister was there for the election rallies.
Addressing election rallies in Ghumarvi, Jhanduta and Sadar assembly constituencies in Bilaspur district, Thakur said the BJP will implement 'Project Shakti' in the state over the next 10 years to improve transport infrastructure.
He said that the next BJP government in Himachal Pradesh will connect every village in the state with metal roads in five years and improve basic infrastructure at pilgrimage centres.
He said Rs 12,000 crore will be spent over the next 10 years to improve transport and basic infrastructure near pilgrimage centres and temples in the state.
In a bid to strengthen the health infrastructure, the number of mobile clinic vans will be doubled in every assembly constituency to ensure that people in far-flung places get access to medical facilities.
Thakur said the "double engine" government in Himachal Pradesh has built 12,000 km long rural roads in the last eight years and the state was also connected to the national capital with the modern Vande Bharat train.
The senior BJP leader hit out at the Congress, accusing it of stalling development projects in the state, particularly in Bilaspur district.
"We sanctioned the AIIMS project worth Rs 1,470 crore, but the then Congress government did not allot land for it. In 2010, the then BJP government in the state proposed a central university for the state, but the Congress government created hurdles in the process," Thakur said.
He said the hydrocarbon engineering college and the medical college proposed by the then BJP government also faced the same fate.
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